Ben Thomas

Profile

Profile

I joined the University in January 2017 as a short-term Lecturer in Modern Scottish History. Prior to my appointment I was the 2015-16 Alan Pearsall Fellow in Naval and Maritime History at the Institute of Historical Research.

My teaching focuses on Scotland's relationship with the wider world, and particularly with war and empire. This year I am teaching a third-year honours module called 'The Scottish Soldier: Image and Reality c. 1870-1920', and am also lecturing and tutoring on the 2nd year sub-honours module 'Scotland and the Wider World'. In addition, I am currently writing an MLitt Distance Learning module to be run here next year, titled 'War, Empire, and Society: Scotland c. 1870-1920'.

Twitter: @Baosbheinn

Teaching

Teaching

I teach on the following undergraduate modules:

HY22006 Scotland and the Wider World

HY31033 The Scottish Soldier: Image and Reality c. 1870-1920

Research

Research

My research focuses on Britain's relationship with the wider world in the 19th and 20th centuries, and pays particular attention to the way in which small communities have been shaped by war and empire. At the moment, this takes the form of an investigation into the history of the Royal Naval Reserve in Britain and Ireland between c. 1850 and 1950, and how the RNR's relationship with maritime communities changed over this period. I am also working on the proposal for a monograph titled 'The Imperial Highlands: Empire, Region, and Society in Scotland c. 1875-1914'. This builds on the work undertaken for my PhD at Aberdeen, which was awarded in 2015.

Publications

Publications

Forthcoming - '"The Clach": The Life and Times of Alexander Mackenzie, Highland Land Reformer, 1838-1898'. Will be published in the journal Northern Scotland in March 2017